Tuesday, 7 May 2019

Chapter 41: Out

It can
take time to become converted…to be willing to act.Prayers alone were not enough.Fasting was not enough.The stain remains.This record may help those who were not yet
truly converted to see that more was needed…there had to be a sacrifice. Should that fail, I know God
understands I was willing to do what had to be done.Today, I, Ihaka, end the stain that was left
on this village by way of sacrifice.Today she, the provided one, will begin the harvest and our continued
immunity from disease with hers.

Neith had attempted to move four times since Ihaka left.The image of Ihaka smiling and conversing
back in Nydia, forestalling her return for her plans fuelling every
effort.The restraints she’d found at
her ankles and wrists bit into her flesh.She could not sit up, she could not get up on all fours to crawl, but
she had tried.On her latest try,
however, she had managed to fall onto the side of her good eye – which, it
turned out, was also the side of her good leg.Lying on her good side might render her blind, but it also reduced her
pain enough that she could remain conscious longer.That was something.It allowed her to think more clearly.She needed to think.There had to be a way out of this.Ihaka
was treating Neith like people Ihaka knew.Or worse, like a piece of meat hog-tied in a hunting hide ready to be
slaughtered.Neith wasn’t someone Ihaka knew.She was many things Ihaka knew nothing about.She was an And designer who carried all kinds of parts on her, for a start.
Parts that meant nothing to most people.She hoped Jamin hadn’t removed anything from her jacket when he’d done
his search.

Instead of thinking of Ihaka, Neith thought of Miles.She wanted to see him.Every day.She wanted to see Elle, Nola, Ruthie, Davey and Amos every day.She wanted that condo for her parents and
Grace.This wasn’t how she was going to
go out!She was going to at least get
done for failure to complete her assignment and go out with a bang.Neith twisted.She brought her hands around to her side,
feeling the pain of her puncture sharply.As well as being an expert at hides, Ihaka had tied her hands well.Her hands were pressed against each other so
tight and tied at her fingers as well as her wrists.Her side hurt.

The man had built his daughter a treehouse!A
treehouse for a gift!

She manoeuvred until she felt the tiny zipper slide against her
fingertips.She fumbled more.She got it between her pointer and middle
finger and pulled.It moved slightly,
then fell from her fingers.She
winced.

Getting out of here would also screw over Prescott.Not getting out of here would mean vanishing
in a town her parents didn’t even know was on the map.

She wanted to learn how lip kisses could trump hand-holds and
hand-kisses.

She painfully recovered the slide and pulled again.After three graduated pulls, she successfully
unzipped the pocket in the jacket seam.She moved her bound, straight fingers into the pocket and fished.She longed for use of her thumb.Then she found it.A spare And
part.The voltage regulator – right
where Grace had left it.At one end its
prongs resembled a comb, the middle was a plastic casing, but at the other end?It was a razor thin plane with a hole at its
centre.She twisted it in her fingers so
that the sharp edge faced out and began working on her finger binding.At one point, the thought of dropping the
regulator or passing out again then
dropping the regulator made her so nervous her hands shook.She had taken deep breaths and waited.Once steady, she resumed.It was slow work.Eventually one of the straps across her hands
gave way.Once she had her fingers free
things improved – she was able to twist both hands out of their clapping
position and into more of a handshake with each other, allowing the razor to
work on her wrist binding next.Success.She cried a little and
then laughed some hysteria.It was
getting dark.

Please, please let me finish
before Ihaka comes back with tools.She had her hands free, but she wasn’t confrontation-ready.Hands free, Neith drew a wishful breath
before lifting the roof of the hide.She
lifted her head to see through her good eye.No Ihaka.Good eye back to the
ground.She wormed and pulled her way
upwards, concentrating on ensuring her left leg balanced on top of the other
remained still.Her dress was sticking
to the knee at the knee.The bone
must’ve broken the skin.A MediAnd would never have let things get
this far.She would never have been left
so alone. Neith had to keep that knee up and away from any further impact.She’d only have one chance.She had to get out and in sight before all
energy drained from her – no one was going to find her here – but maybe if she
could get out, someone would see her.Someone that wasn’t Ihaka. She
was losing blood.She could feel it.

Her good eye forced closed by the ground, her injured eye enjoying a
reprieve from the pressure, she worked in the darkness.She inched half-way out, pulling on roots
outside with one hand and lifting the hide’s roof with the back of the
other.Her pierced side flared,
threatening to damn all her efforts.She
stayed awake.With one last, writhing
effort, she used her good leg to launch herself off of the interior wall of her
former cell.She was out.

She lifted her head.Elle’s house
was a long way away.She didn’t think
she could make it that far.But she was
going to try dang it.

She wanted Elle to yell at her.She willed Elle to come out and see her and give her a good scolding for
everything.She wanted that ending – not
this.

Dragging herself on her elbows, legs useless and limp, she worked slowly
over the rough ground.She kept her head
low, her eyes closed except for an occasional check on her progress.It was too far.It was dark.She felt weak.She wanted to go
to sleep here.

Then she smelled it.

The outhouse.

She dug deeper.She found the
hidden last reserve.Guided by the
stench she thought she’d never miss, she had her goal.Someone would have to use the toilet
eventually – they’d find her then.She
felt a warm surge of fluid leaving her stomach as she reached the place where
the stone wall finished.A few more
metres.She must be leaving a blood
trail.Someone needed to visit the
outhouse before Ihaka returned to the
hide.Her leg screamed in protest as she
heaved towards the small building.She
took a breath, weighing up whether she could go further still when everything
inside begged for rest.She again passed
out.

#

Neith felt pulling under her arms.Rescue?She opened her one good
eye.

“Ah!She wakes.”Ihaka.The psychopath was back.She was
pulling Neith onto a stretcher fashioned from branches and fabric.The disappointment bursting her inner dam
crashed louder than the pain of being moved.“You must always tether your lambs else they wander away before the
rites are complete.”Tools jangled at Ihaka’s waist.

Neith couldn’t speak.She could
barely swallow.She closed her eye.She felt something in her hand.The regulator she’d used to cut free of her
“tethering.”She’d been gripping it for
the entire laborious crawl.

“You’re like the lamb in the thicket, you know?I thought I had to find a first born Nydian
to lay things to rest and herald a new dawn.But that felt unconscionable – like Abraham killing his own.Then you came.You were the answer.The lamb in the thicket.”Ihaka crouched and began tying Neith around
her shoulders to the stretcher.Neith
slid the regulator beneath her thigh but held it tight.“This will get you to the waterfall.There we can take care of the task and wash
it all away; leave it clean.God will
know what I have done, and those in the camp who think my methods unnecessary
will be none the wiser.I don’t need their
gratitude.I know what I’m doing pleases
Him.I hear whispers of encouragement
even now.The whispers tell me the best
way to do it.And how I’ll feel life
coming back into Nydia as it leaves you.Ihaka moved sideways in her crouch and began fastening Neith around her
waist to the stretcher.

It would have to be now.Neith
needed to make her move now.

Neith withdrew the regulator from beneath her thigh and plunged it into
Ihaka’s leg as hard as she could.

Ihaka hissed and recoiled.“You
ungrateful serpent!”She clutched her
leg.Neith’s improvised weapon remained
in the flesh, protruding out of a seeping wound.Neith dropped her head back onto the
stretcher and exhaled.Ihaka set her
teeth, and resumed securing Neith at her waist, looping rope around the wrist
of the offending hand.The robotics part
the hand had so recently held now jutted awkwardly out of Ihaka’s thigh.Centimetres away.Ihaka wasn’t going to pull the regulator out
of her thigh?She might be crazy, but it
appeared Ihaka knew something about bleeding.Neith cringed.Neith knew too,
pulling the shaft out would increase the flow and the likelihood of
infection.

Which meant somebody needed to
pull it out – Neith could not be dragged away now, not when she was so
close.Twisting to use the hand further
from Ihaka – ignoring the screaming pain – Neith made a lunge at Ihaka thigh.She couldn’t see well, but her hand found the
regulator. She gripped and pulled.The
part cut into her hand as she clutched it.Ihaka batted her away.“You
barren wretch!To think I pitied you
once.Now I see you fail to comprehend
the greater work you are a part of.It’ll be over soon.”Neith’s hand
was a mess.She could feel the sharp
sting of air hitting new valleys across her palms and fingers.Ihaka lifted her thigh over Neith and placed
a knee on each of Neith’s hands.“If
only you understood, you wouldn’t fight against this.You want what’s best for Nydia too, don’t
you?He knows what’s best for Nydia, and
He has spoken to me.I know what’s best.”

“No, you don’t.”That wasn’t
Ihaka’s voice.Neith couldn’t open her
eye.But she knew.That was Elle.She held a frying pan high above her head.It came down hard at Ihaka’s temple.Ihaka slumped forward across Neith’s chest
and shoulder.Neith couldn’t breathe.She couldn’t breathe.

#

“Elle.I came as soon as Ruthie
told me.”A pause.“Oh no.She’s a mess.Is she going to be
okay?”Jamin’s voice?

“She has to be.I’m not done
talking to her.”That was Elle.For sure.She was here.Someone came.

Neith was spent.She was wet,
cold, and in blinding pain.And still
blind.She didn’t dare to open either
eye or move any part. She still had
known Elle’s voice it broke through the chasm of ebony.

“She doesn’t look good.”Neith
was pretty sure that was Jamin.

“If you want to be helpful, you can apply pressure here.Nee?Can you hear me!?Nee?I’m sorry!I’m sorry I was angry.Well no,
I’m not sorry for that, but I’m sorry I didn’t get to talk to you after I was
angry.To tell you it’s okay,
Neith.It’s okay.”Elle was blubbering.Jamin’s assessment must have frightened
her.“I meant what I said, on Longest
Day – about family – we stick together.We figure out the hard stuff.So
I’m angry you didn’t tell me sooner.Because Neith, you’re not off the hook that easily.I know you.You…” she choked.Elle was
crying.Neith felt hands on her cheek.It hurt, but it wasn’t Ihaka, it wasn’t an
old admirer back home who didn’t ask permission.It wasn’t Ihaka’s hands, which lingered to
long.This hand touch felt right.“You
are good.So learning this – this
news – it doesn’t change anything, except that you are in big trouble, after we
get you fixed.Do you hear me!?”

“Is there anything I can do?”Jamin asked.

“You did good crawling so far hon’ – and lasting as long as you
did.Nee…”

“Elle.Tell me what do do.”Jamin spoke gently.

“Move her.I’ve done everything I
can for her here, she needs things I can’t give her.Get her out of here – keep pressure on that
spot and keep her hand elevated – I need to get back to the kids.I don’t want them seeing her like this.”

“You’re right.Get back to them,
the person who did this is still out there.”

“We both know who did this, and she wouldn’t dare touch my kids.”Elle wasn’t crying now; she sounded strong,
in control and dangerous.Neith was going to be okay.Elle said so.

And then Neith gave in to sweet, sweet, pain-freeing unconsciousness.

#

Neith was moving again.Not being
dragged but being lifted, and now teetering.No, she was rocking.She was on
the water.She drew a deep breath
remembering the hide.She was far from
the hide. She felt the pain in her side again, but lessened.She smiled.Someone had given her something for it.It was good.

“Neith?”Miles!That voice belonged to Miles. “Jamin, Elle
was right, she can hear us.Neith?”

Neith was pretty sure she looked like a purple kūmara, right now.Never mind, her side felt improved.Miles liked beetroot, right?She smiled again, her eyes still closed.

“You’re on a boat.Supplies came
from Havelock today, with a message from the City.They’re bringing you in.Somehow they knew.You have to go.Elle told me...told me you may not want to go
back to them...but Neith, your injuries…” he trailed off.“They’ll be able to help you there.And we’re not sure we can stop them if we
tried.They knew something was
wrong.They’ve already sent a
chopper.”

Neith wondered if the numbing good stuff she’d been given would extend
its kindness to her face region.She
risked opening an eye.She saw Miles.His face, teaching-light absent, grave
concern etched in its place.His eyes
were welling up, threatening to spill over.Then a smelt.

“Hey, Neith.Good to see you
awake.”Jamin called from the rudder,
concealing any emotion.

Neith looked back at Miles.“Nice
smelt you got there.”Neith rasped.She sipped water from a straw Miles offered.

Jamin gave a gruff, quiet, shudder of amusement.“Word salad.Don’t sweat it, Miles – she gets this way when her head hurts.”

Neith laughed and her side gave a dull throb in answer.She threw her words Jamin’s way; “I do not.
Have word salad.He’s smelting at me
here.”A deep breath.She looked back at Miles.“You know?The smiles that melt – the smelts.”It had sounded better in her head.She probably should have tried her coinage out loud privately first.“And you,” Neith, said looking to Jamin
through the grogginess of meds. “We have to stop meeting this way.”One bleary awakening in front of the bear-man
was already too many.Jamin laughed
without reservation this time.Neith
felt like she could only speak four or five words at a time, her breathing
laboured but mostly painless.

“And.Are you telling me?That I could’ve come…to Nydia by boat?Laying down?Like this?”Neith remembered the
hike from the helicopter’s drop point.Could she have skipped all that?

“We’re breaking all kinds of rules.”Miles said.He was holding her
hand.She felt him squeeze it now. It
was still better than kisses shared between a king of men and an elvan
princess; Neith wouldn’t trade Miles for Aragorn…or whichever Old World actor
had played him.Miles continued: “And
the boat being here – it must’ve been fate, Nee.We only have a boat come to us every other
month.Tell me more about this smelt
thing.”

Say Nee again, would you?

She attempted a smile and played coy. “Are there dolphins?”

Miles turned his face towards Jamin, seeking clarification.

“It’ll be the gas then.It’s good
– it means it’s working.”

They’d given her gas?“No.Not the gas.Dolphins.In the strait.Guiding us home.”She regretted it as soon as she’d said
it.“Guiding us,” she repeated as though
she could amend how the sentence had ended.

Miles leaned closer now, whispering in her ear.She noted his lips were close to her right
side – the side she imagined was less kumara.Or maybe purple cauliflower?“Nee.Listen to me.We are not taking you home.Feichangbei…” he paused on the sourness of it
in his mouth, “is not your home.They’re going to fix you, and you’re going to
come back here, to Nydia.You’re going
to come back to me.”How forward.How incredible.Could
she ever come back here?Would they have
her back?Elle forgiving her omission
during her stay wasn’t the same as all of Nydia embracing her permanently.Neith looked at Miles.She really looked.She smiled.“Did you hear what I said?I know
you’ll have to face some demons, back at camp.But don’t run.We’ll face them
together.”She knew what he reallymeant; Don’t
do what Wren did.“We’ll look each
other in the eyes more.Like this.”He smiled, and she watched his eyes while
they crinkled, instead of only seeing the crinkles in her side vision. She’d
avoided this held eye contact?She’d
been missing out.“That is, if Davey can
ever recover from this.”

“Davey?!”Neith freaked.“Did that witch hurt him?”

“Easy. Davey’s okay.”Miles squeezed back her panic with his
hand.“I only meant that seeing us at
the dance was one thing, but now…”

“…now what?”She’d admitted the
smelt thing, he could give her something.

“Now Davey will have to accept it.You’re mine.I’ll be here waiting
for you.I will wait as long as it
takes.” He squeezed her hand again.

You’re mine.When he
said those words it lifted instead of scared her.Those words sounded like belonging…and
home.She was overcome reliving the moments
she’d wanted to draw out during their second date.Or was it their third?The gas wasn’t good with numbers.

It felt wrong to be so happy with everything that had happened, and
might happen now.She needed to know
everyone was safe.“So you know...it was
Ihaka?And her dad...you know?”

“It is all under control.No one
is in danger.You can rest.There’s a ways to go.”

Neith closed her eye.Miles
leaned forward and kissed it – a small peck on the lid.

She was weightless.

The gas may have contributed, but Neith was pretty sure Miles’ eyelid
kisses had no algorithm to explain them.They weren’t chartable.She
wanted more of those kisses and in more places.

Feichangbei better have a fix for city girl traitors who fall in love
with school teachers in the backwoods, to go along with their antibiotics and
physical cures.

Neith felt a plastic seal form around her mouth and recognised sweet
sweet gas filling the mask.She didn’t
fight it.Miles was holding her hand and
she was his.She smiled in the mask –
looking at him, smelting back.